Social media and the introductory statistics course

The popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube begs the question of how such sites might be used for educational purposes within classroom settings. This paper presents a review of some of the educational uses of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube within college classrooms. Because of the lack of published reports on the use of social media within statistics classrooms, the authors share their own examples of how social media can be used within the introductory statistics classroom, and they outline recommendations and considerations for other instructors who might want to explore the use of social media in their own courses.

► We review literature on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube use for teaching purposes.
► We share examples of social media use in the teaching of statistics.
► We offer recommendations to faculty about using social media in their classrooms.